theone86

Posted on 5/1/08 12:21 AM

So it kinda sucks watching a post-PPV Raw and not knowing what's going on, and it sucks more writing a review without proper context, but I'll do my best. First off, I'll give a quick Backlash rundown based on what I did see and what I read.

-Matt Hardy vs. MVP was the only full match I saw. It rocked ass.

-I saw the beginning of Kane vs. Chavo. It had a decent work, but nothing special. I heard how it ended, and it's a really cheap ending for a PPV. It would have been good, except that both Chavo and Eddie have pulled this ending multiple times, I think with both Kane and Taker.

-Big Show vs. Khali would've been my bathroom break, or would it have been the Diva match? Meh, no use splitting hairs.

-I'll bet Michaels vs. Batista was a great match. It sounded good, and it sounded like Michales came off as a little bit of a heel at the end. I wouldn't mind seeing this program continue, but PLEASE do more to build it than just cut some promos.

-Beth squashed what's her face with the breasts, big deal.

-I don't know how wise it is to have Edge lose cleanly to Taker twice in a row, especially by submission. I'd say their fued is pretty much dead (pun intended), and restarting it is going to take a little more than dirty politics from Vicki Guerrero. It's kind of puzzling thinking about Taker's next opponent. Edge? taken out of the picture. Batista? Blew his shot and pulled a PPV job. Big Show? Probably the only logical contender, and the one I'd most like to see.

-I didn't see the match, so I can't give a complete comment, but the thing I hate the most about Cena is the way he uses the STFU. It's a mockery to classic submission wrestling, and I would happily watch every one of his matches with a smile if he would just stop using that move, and possibly the Sicilian Slice as well. It sounds like the big story of this match was Orton vs. Triple H, though, which automatically makes me ask, why not bill them as the main event? This card could've easily had another high-caliber match, why not work a JBL/Cena program during April that leads up to a Backlash grudge match? But that's just my two cents. It sounds like Triple H and Orton really went at it, and this is another match I wish I could see. I'm glad Triple H got the win. It sounds like the program between him and Orton is far from over, and I can't wait to see them take it to the next level.

On to Raw

I'm so gald they're keeping Regal's gimmick serious. When I heard "coronation" I started having flashbacks to the 5+ minutes of, "all hail King Booker," from two years ago. If one person said all hail on Raw I would've put my remote straight through my TV set.

Regal cut a GREAT promo to open Raw up. I'm not kidding, spectacular. Not one of these adrenaline-charged, gay-bashing, kiddie joke-laden, vein-in-the-forehead promos that we've all become accustomed to, but a very eloquent, calm, well-thought out statement in which he declared his dominance. I think the "what?" chants in the background gave it even more effect. I've always admired Regal in the ring, and now he's showing some great mic skills. I am getting more and more excited about his push each week.

Mr. Kennedy came in and cut a pretty standard promo. He's no slouch on the mic, but I was much more impressed with Regal. Regal topped it off with a big left during Kennedy's signature scream, which led up to a brawl. Good set-up, I can't wait to see the rest of this fued.

Chris Jericho took some smug shots at the nature of the WWE's silly segments, and I loved it. All except for a pretty tasteless take on a segement that was pretty tasteless to begin with. A small note to WWE creative: sodomy is NOT funny. You'd think they would've learned it by now, but they just keep going back to it like flies to honey.

I smell a Michaels heel turn coming. I know everyone's predicting Jericho, but look at it. Batista doesn't trust Michaels, Jericho calls Michaels out, Michaels pulls out a superkick while Jericho is holding Batista back, Jericho calls him on it. I actually wouldn't mind seeing either one of them turn. I think all three of them have been playing the tweener game, where they all do slightly heelish things and see who gets the most cheers and who takes the most heat. I just want to see some sort of resolution followed by a fued.

I'm sorry if I think "punishing" people onscreen is archaic, but it's the most ridiculous concept ever. Someone shows up on a rival show to see his friend, gets shown against his wishes, so we're going to put him in a bunch of hig-profile jobs. This is like schoolyard mentality, anyone older than 8 could probably tell you that. Again, WWE always complains about being taken seriously, well serious people don't settle grudges by putting the other person on TV and making him lose. If a recording artist were to make a public scandal, would they have their album pushed back to a date where it would sell less? Of course not. If a football player makes a scene, do they put him in a position on the field where he's going to look bad? No. If you want to be taken seriously, then conduct your business like any other serious business would.

Not that I'm morally opposed to Robbie pulling jobs. In fact, that's part of the idiocracy of the situation. He was already pulling jobs on Heat, now you're going to bump him to pulling jobs for main eventers on TV to get back at him? You're doing him more good than harm. It's just stupid logic.

JBL didn't look like he was being especially stiff, though. Not much to say about this match, just a squash. JBL cut a decent promo afterwards. I'd like to see him in a fued with Cena. I think there's a lot of history to play up there, and it would be the perfect opportunity for Cena to turn over a new leaf.

Oh, this is rich, a BACKLASH rematch. I'll give them credit, they didn't do the normal Wrestlemania part 2 at Backlash that they usually do, but now on Raw they do a rematch of what wasn't a great match in the first place?

I like seeing Kelly getting worked over. Regardless of skill, she's very green and it's good to see her pay some dues. She did have a nice spot against Victoria, but I still reserve final judgement, agains, because tag matches are easier to work. I really have no idea how well she can work at this point.

Mickie James was absolutely electric. She pulled off some great spots, and was the highlight of the match. The heel side actually had 4 out of their 5 women in the match, with only two of them getting any working in at all. The face side got two women in there, and Mickie was the only one with any work. Why even have the other 8 Divas out there at all?

I still can't tell where they're going. One thing I absolutely can not stand about the Women's division is how they refuse to build any one on one fueds. Every fued is basically a bunch of tag matches with a Title match, that might be a singles match, at the end. I'd really like to see Mickie and Beth go at it without all the other Divas getting their rub fill.

I don't know that I've ever seen Santino Marella or Cody Rhodes in singles action before this, and most people would call that a good thing. Not me, however. I was impressed with what I saw from Rhodes. He had some good spots, although I can't comment on his work as he was the one getting worked over most of the match.

Santino wasn't so impressive. He's not horrible, but he just goes around with that, "I'm gonna yell and do everything very fast and no-sell," attitude that I hate so much. He is just one of those guys who wrestles exclusively for himself. Plus, he doesn't do anything that's all that great as far as ring-work. I've never been a fan of his mic work, either. He just seems like a pretty below-average performer all-around.

I'm no fan of Cody Rhodes' mic skills, either. I think he has the skill, he just needs some better lines. It's pretty obvious that Carlito is doing most of the heavy lifting in his team. With all the good teams feigning break-ups these days I have just one question, why not Carlito and Santino? I'd love to see Carlito move up the card, god knows he deserves it.

It's also good to see Roddy Piper back. Santino had one good line when he asked Piper to do the Truffle Shuffle. Piper has put on a couple pounds, but he's still the Rowdy one we all know and love. I wonder if this was just a one-off or if he's going to do a program with Santino?

London and Kendrick are back! And not soon enough. Thank god someone finally realized how hot these guys are. I still wish they would abandon this Cade and Murdock split, as I think both stutter on their own, but excell at tag competition.

They put on a good match, but a short one. Like three minutes short. They're all great competitors and they hit some good spots, but I am drooling for more.

Super Crazy made his Raw return! and he pulled a job. I really would like to see more of Super Crazy in legit competition. I have no clue why they don't move him to ECW so that he can compete against people that actually might job to him for once.

I'm still creeped out by Paul Burchill's gimmick. I'd much rather see him team with Drew McIntyre as the new Bluebloods, possibly with Dave Taylor as a manager, although I think they've dropped both of them by now. It's a real shame they push FCW prospects like Kozlov but not ones like McIntyre.

J.R. made a comment about not remembering any brother/sister tandems ever being in the WWE. I wonder if he's trying to disavow any knowledge of the failed Ken and Ryan Shamrock angle.

Burchill and Super Crazy had a decent match. Nothing special at all, but decent. I'm also not much of a fan of his finisher. It's really not finisher caliber. It could work as one of his bigger spots, but he's got so many better moves that he could use as a finisher.

On to the main event. I'm so glad to see TV Title defenses make a comeback, although I think TNA had the better idea announcing the match a week in advance to build hype. It really doesn't affect the match, but isn't the idea of theses matches to draw more viewers? And how are you drawing more viewers if you announce the match during the braodcast?

I am VERY into Triple H and Orton's fued. I think they can both work an excellent program, and that they're building to a classic PPV match, although the next big PPV is still four months off. Orton and Triple H put on a good match that went for about 20 minutes. It featured some good working by both men. Triple H was very reminiscent of his Cerebral Assassin days, and Orton played the diabolical heel he's become so good at. There wasn't a lot of fast back-and-forth action, but there was a lot of working from both parties. It was maybe a little too much working considering the length of the match. I would've liked to have seen a couple more spots, and it did seem to drag as it went on. It did pick up near the end, but it still seemed like even then they were just pulling out their usual spots. Still, it was well worked and a pretty good match. I just know these guys can put on so much better.

Now the ending. It actually wasn't as bad as everyone made it sound. I don't think anyone expected a clean finish to that match, so the fued continues and Regal gets some good heat. It does work well with Regal's character. Still, I think maybe having Regal do a run-in to establish himself might have been a better idea. Just cutting to black is such a cheap cop-out, I just, I...I...oh god, I'm having flashbacks...arrgh...such...bad...decision...don't...stop...believing...GAAAAAHHHHH, I MUST HAVE BLOOD! DAVID CHASE'S BLOOD!!! Oh, what? Ahem, I'm sorry for that. So yeah, bad ending and it wasn't even original.

Overall, it was a good show. Solid, no filler, good matches all the way down the card. I'm starting to get a little tired of seeing two or more matches a night on Raw that top out at three minutes max, but hopefully they'll materialize into something soon. The main event was good, but not epic. Overall, the show was well above average.

5 comments Permalink

Posted on 4/30/08 9:48 PM

Well, I was trying to post a Backlash Review, but I can't seem to find any matches on YouTube. Go figure, I can find ten different versions of every Mania match but I can't find a full Backlash card. Oh, well.

This is the blog I am most disappointed about posting late. Two days ago marked the third anniversary of the death of one of the consumate performers of his generation, Chris Candido.

Chris Candido was a second-generation wrestler, grandson of Chuck Richards, and was trined by Larry Sharpe, who also trained Bam Bam Bigelow and Kevin Von Erich. He started out wrestling for the World Wrestling Association before moving on to a fledgling ECW. He tagged with Chris Michaels and fellow Sharpe trainee Johnny Hotbody as the Suicide Blondes, and together they won the ECW Tag Titles and defended them under the Freebird Rule.

Candido then moved on to Smokey Mountain Wrestling where he won the NWA World Heavyweight Championship for the first time in a 10-man tournament. The Title had been vacated just months prior by Shane Douglas during his infamous incident in which he threw the belt down. Candido held the belt for three months before dropping it to Dan "The Beast" Severn.

Candido then moved on to WWE where he had a brief run as Tag Champion along with Tom Prichard as The Bodydonnas.

Candido then moved back to ECW where he started one of his most famous runs as part of Shane Douglas' Triple Threat, along with Lance Storm and then fellow Sharpe trainee Bam Bam Bigelow. After having a brief fued with Storm, Candido captured his third ECW Tag Team Championship with him. They enjoyed a six month reign before dropping the Titles to the crowd favorite team of Sabu and Rob Van Dam. He then had a short-lived stint in WCW where he held the WCW Cruiserweight Title for a month and reformed the Triple Threat with Douglas, Bam Bam, and long-time manager and now wife Tammy Lynn Sytch a.k.a. Sunny. He left WCW along with Sytch after Sytch had a falling out backstage.

Candido wrestled with Xtreme Pro Wrestling for a while before joining TNA in 2005. During his short time there, he aided the young tag team The Naturals in their quest for TNA gold. The Naturals captured their second NWA World Tag Team Championship, and thier first with Candido as manager, on April 26, 2005, two days after Lockdown, by beating America's Most Wanted. Two days later Chris Candido passed away due to a blood clot.

Candidio was one of the hardest working men in pro wrestling. He was never completely over with management or the fans, but he did his best to make up for it in the ring. He was a consumate worker, and he never hesitated to give back to the business that he loved. Although forgotten by most mainstream wrestling fans, hardcore fans will always remember him as one of the most underrated and talented tag wrestlers out there.

2 comments Permalink

Posted on 4/30/08 8:06 PM

Again, a thousand apologies for not being on top of my blogs this week. I'm trying to make sure I'm not posting more than a week after the show.

I still hate Vicki Guerrero.

I think the no DQ stipulation added to the main event was just excessive. Maybe if Taker and Batista had made more use out of it, but there's really no reason to add it on if you're not going to play it up. You're probably not going to get people suddenly tuning in or deciding to watch the entire show instead of just the first hour, and it's almost completely pointless if it's going to be a clean match 99% of the way through. I guess it did kind of facilitate the finish, but they could have just as easily had the ref knocked out.

It's good to see CM Punk getting a good push finally. I keep dreading seeing him go for the World or WWE Titles, seeing as I'd rather have them re-establish the ECW Title as a World Title, but I like his push, nonetheless.

CM Punk and Edge put on a great match with a good work, both wrestlers getting their turns working each other over, getting worked over, and putting on some impressive spots. The match featured some great chain wrestling, as well as some unique holds from CM Punk including a spinning armbar. Yeah, I've never seen it before either, but it's basically a spinning toehold executed on the arm instead. It also featured multiple Dusty finishes, the last of which saw a counter to the spear I've never seen before. The final finish let both men keep a good amount of momentum, with Edge coming out on top headed into the PPV.

I still hate Jimmy Yang's gimmick. Thank god I didn't have to listen to that ridiculous hoe-down music this week.

One thing I also hate is a heel portraying himself as an environmentalist. Can't we have someone the fans look up to advocate Earth Day?

Miz seems to be improving. He seems to know how to work a LOT better than some of his peers who came into WWE pretty green. I still think he has room to improve as far as developing his own style, but he is certainly very high up on my list of most improved this past year due, in no small part, to his ability to work a match.

Shannon Moore was equally impressive. He had some great spots, as always, and contributed a lot to the work of this match. As bad as I think the build for this fued has been, it has consistently produced good matches, and this one is no exception.

I still hate Cherry.

Cherry actually did a better job in her match against Natalya. I can't decide if WWE wants to make her look inept in the ring at first as part of her character, or if she really is one of these pseudo-model-wrestlers who won't take the time to understand working and selling. I do think they have a long way to go to build her back up as a legit opponent after her piss-poor debut against Victoria. In her match against Natalya I questioned the logic just about every time Natalya sold. If they can't break her of that, then I have a feeling she might be back on skates sooner than later.

Natalya had a good showing. Like I said, any offense Cherry got in was pretty unplausible, but Natalya was still impressive. Good debut match with some wickedly tight slams.

And look at this, a filler match for Backlash. Wow, 5 Divas who can wrestle and one wanna-be model against one Diva who can wrestle and 5 wanna-be models. I can't WAIT for that one.

Hardy and MVP drew some good momentum and heat, respectively. Not that they really needed it, but the segment did help the build a lot, which I think has been lacking since Hardy's return.

I had tacos before the show, so I had a sudden digestion emergency and was in the bathroom for exactly three minutes and seven seconds. I don't think I missed much.

Undertaker was in prime for on Friday night, and Batista has never looked better. I really am impressed at what Batista has done with his ring performance. He's doing better works, he's got better, more controlled movements, he's doing more back and forth action, and he's selling better. I had almost given up on him completely no less than a year ago, and now I think he's finally starting to earn his spot in the main event.

They had a good solid match, with some good spots and a good work. Not much filler, either. I'm so disinterested in the Batista/Michaels match that I'm pretty much indifferent about the ending, but it was still a good match.

Overall, it was a VERY good show. the filler was minimal, but noticable. I think the Smackdown's Women's Division is getting a little ridiculous. All the faces are sub-par as far as ring skills are concerned, and the heels are some of the best in the biz. I think that if they're going to put on Women's matches on a show with only four women they should have their lesser talented Divas go up against more lesser talented Divas, and put the REAL talent like Natalya, Beth Phoenix, Mickie James, Victoria, and Melina all on Raw in the Title hunt. I also think Kozlov is getting very old, very fast. The rest of the show, however, was great. Punk, Edge, Miz, Taker, Batista, and Shannon Moore all had VERY impressive showings, and there was a good build towards the PPV. Overall, a great show.

3 comments Permalink

Posted on 4/29/08 2:53 PM

Yeah, I know, it's WAY late, but for once it's not Live's fault. I've been feeling pretty shitty the past few days, and have fallen WAY behind in my blogs. I hate to post late reviews and bombard you with a cluster of blogs, but I want to get these out, so deal with it.

I'm a little worried and a little excited about Matt Morgan. On one hand, he's showing a lot of promise, good mic skills, and good ring work. One the other hand, I'm hoping they don't stick him in a classic Russo stinker and completely cripple his TNA career. *please don't drop the ball, please don't drop the ball.*

TNA announced on Impact that they have a new Tag Tournament concept for this mont's PPV, Sacrifice. From what I gather, 8 teams will have qualifying matches on Impact, 8 teams will be chosen at random the day of, those 16 teams will have singles matches at Sacrifice, and the remaining 8 will have another series of matches, and then something happens...I dunno, all I heard was J.C. spewing a bunch of gibberish and Don West repeating that each team will have to win three matches the day of Sacrifice. I think the two's logic sorta conflicts, but I can't figure either one out anyways. People are gonna have matches, and someone's going to win the Tag Titles, all we need to know.

I know TNA has won big on strange ideas before, but they've also had some that rival the Dog Pound match or whatever it was. I like the idea of random teams a little, but the actual mechanics of the tournament are ridiculous. Just make it a three or four round single elimination and be done with it.

AJ Styles did a segment with Karen Angle in which he was playing it completely straight. It's good to see him acting like someone with a head on his shoulders again, let's hope this trend continues.

Rellik and Reign had a good match against Team 3D. It had a good work, some Dusty finishes (naturally), and a clean finish. As much as I dislike Rellik's gimmick, he can work a good match. As far as Team 3D's split, I really hope they drop this angle, it's just stupid to break them up now that they're riding their biggest popularity and success ever.

We're seeing a lot of face against face and heel against heel action this week. I don't mind it, as I've always hated it when the locker room lines get clearly drawn down the face/heel line. Still, it usually means less interesting finishes in matches, and it could get excessive if it becomes a habit.

Detractors, be struck with fear, SUPER ERIC is here! Yeah, yeah, you say it's goofy, it's really not if you look at it. I just think everyone besides EY is doing a bad job playing it up. It's probably one of the most insightful, intelligent gimmicks anyone has ever run, I think it's getting undue heat.

The Guns put on a hell of a match against Christian and Rhino, one that also had a lot of Dusty finishes. In fact, it almost had too many. I do think it brought down the work of the match, but they put on enough of a show to bring it back up. I don't like seeing the Guns on a losing streak, but I think TNA is trying to work it's main event talent back into individual storylines. I'd bet money that the Guns are in line for a push once the new champs are crowned.

I'm getting kind of sick of Jim Cornette. At least now they're starting to turn him heel, but all his chauvanist ranting is starting to get to me, heel or no.

The Knockout Battle Royal sounds like a unique concept. I really like it, all except for the loser gets shaved part. It's just an angle that never goes anywhere and always seems to kill the shavee's momentum, I find it kind of pointless. *please be Christy Hemme, please be Christy Hemme.*

So where is Peyton Banks anyways? It's almost like she got herself in hot water or something.

Sting and Booker had a good match against Roode and Storm. People keep saying Booker's going heel, but he's really just donning more of a hard-nosed, needs no assistance from anyone face. It's more of what his gimmikc was back in his heyday in WCW, I like it.

Don West is living in his own world. Earlier in the night Kevin Nash said in an interview that Joe's easy part is done, and now the hard part starts because everyone's gunning for him. D.W. not only took that completely out of context, he inserted his own words and flipped the meaning. It's got to be frustrating as a wrestler when you want to play something up a certain way and a guy who used to sell jewlery on the HSN Channel turns what you said COMPLETELY around.

The real highlight of the night was the main event for the TNA World Heavyweight Title. Joe and Angle put on a PPV quality match. Lots of back and forth action, lots of great chain wrestling, a good work, and a believable finish with the Genetic Freak hitting Angle with a lead pipe. I don't mind the Triple Threat stipulation that much, either. WWE has really beat triple threats and fatal four ways to death in my mind, but it's something that's relatively fresh in TNA, as they use them more sparingly.

Overall, it was a pretty average episode. All the matches were solid, and the segments were done fairly well. The main event, however, brings this Impact above average. It was main event quality for a PPV, and it's good to see these types of matches make a return to TV.

11 comments Permalink

Posted on 4/23/08 8:54 PM

Wow, a review that's being posted on time, imagine that.

So about eleven minutes into the broadcast I realized Mike Adamle was still calling matches. No shit, eleven minutes before he opens his mouth. I don't know if I should be thankful or wish he could keep it shut the whole episode.

I'm sure that if Flair was still competing he'd have been in action last night. I think it would be a bad idea to lose all that hype they get from Greensboro fans. Instead they should try working one or both of the Hardyz into their Greensboro shows.

Watching Kelly and Layla is almost as bad as watching grade schoolers bounce around on a trampoline. I do have to say that Kelly is looking like she's improving more than certain Divas, but then again tag matches aren't always the best gauge.

Mike Knox is also looking impressive. He's wrestling a very fast, tight style, which is getting more and more rare in WWE these days. He's got an interesting finisher, too. It was a fairly short showing, but it was impressive.

Tommy Dreamer is someone i would like to see featured more prominently. I know he's probably going to end up jobbing to Knox, but if WWE knows what they're doing they'll drag the fued out and let Dreamer stay over for a while. Simply lining up jobs for veterans is one of the worst moves you could do, in my opinion.

I can never really get a good gauge on Miz's improvement, if there is any, because every time he's in action he's in a tag match. Last time I saw him in singles action I wasn't impressed, and it's clear who the star of his team is.

I do like the shots Miz took at Mike Adamle. I have a feeling he might get his ass chewed out for it, but it was definitely worth it. "Is he JAMAICAN you crazy?" He's never going to live that one down.

I'm not sure who was more painful to listen to, Miz or Adamle. I know Miz is trying to be cocky, but saying you're on the same level as the World Champion when you're still on ECW's mid-card just makes you look stupid.

I take that back, Adamle is worse. "He's in the ring, now he's out of the ring, now he's at the 50, the 40, he COULD GO ALL THE WAAAAAYYYY!!! I'm sorry, what? We're back from commercial?"

Miz is not a great announcer, but between Taz picking up Adamle's play-by-play duties and Miz doing a better job at color than Adamle was doing at PBP, well, maybe we have a new ECW announce team in the works. Even Taz took at a shot at Adamle, it's like shooting fish in a barrel.

As for Morrison's matchagainst Jimmy Yang, I tought it could've been better. Morrison got some good working in, Yang hit some cool spots, but the way the match was worked was just real simple. Pretty avergae, which is disappointing from these two.

So WWE is moving their mics closer to the ring, and I think it's a bad idea. You just get to hear all the senseless banter that goes on to make it look like they're having a real conversation. It's like hearing a conversation between movie extras, just not real fun to listen to.

So in addition to repeating his new cathphrase over and over to no avail, Adamle called Kofi "Cobra" Kingston. C'mon, the jokes up, who's the new ECW announcer? Come on out of hiding Joey, you had me going for a week there.

Kofi Kingston is impressive. He's athletic, and he can work a match. I actually didn't even see him hit his finisher at the end of the match. Taz called it and I had to go back to catch it.

Still, Shelton Benjamin is main event material, plain and simple. The fact that he's pulling jobs on ECW is ridiculous. If anyone deserved to be pushed up the card, it's this man.

He and Kofi put on one hell of a match, with Shelton working him almost the whole time. Even then, Kofi was able to get some brief spurts of offense in, and he built the match well enough to make it very interesting. Kudos to the two of them.

So last week on Smackdown Mark Henry had an impressive showing against the Big Show, and this week on ECW he was in a match with a credible main event opponent. Oh wait, I think I just temporarily warped to an alternate reality where ECW's bookers know what they're doing. Henry was in, can yoiu guess? C'mon, take one stab at it, I dare ya. That's right, a squash match against Nunzio. Not only does Nunzio deserve to be in some better matchups, not only can Henry put on a good showing when put up against someone who's built right, but no one wants to see Henry squashing 180 lbs men.

Mike Adamle gets the honors of being one of WWE's biggest mistakes, and that's saying something, and also of having the most tasteless comment of the week in all of televised wrestling, which is also saying something. Congratulations, Mike, for comparing Henry's squash of Nunzio to Euthanaisa. Hope you're happy with yourself, you jerk.

Finally, I do like the angle between Edge's camp and the Kane/Taker camp, but I do think it could've come at a better time. One show before Backlash they start putting Edge into Kane's fued and Batista into Taker's fued. I would think you would want to get the side stories out of the way early in the month, then have the main fueds build closer to Backlash, but that's just me.

I do think the builds are great. Kane and Edge cut a great segment early on in the show, playing up a lot of their convulted histories. They also hinted at the real reason behind Edge's relationship with Vicki, and I REALLY hope they run with that angle soon.

Overall, it was a decent show. Some filler, a little too much for my tastes, but not that bad. The only match that really stood out was Kofi vs. Shelton, but the others were solid. Just above average.

8 comments Permalink